


Bridge

by TheonSugden



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, Mental Illness, implications of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 18:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5550344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheonSugden/pseuds/TheonSugden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron runs into Belle after they both fall out with their respective parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bridge

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after the Christmas episode.

Aaron had to get out of Paddy’s house. Paddy had stopped _really_ talking to him after he’d made it clear he wasn’t going to have warm fuzzies with Gordon, Rhona was polite but clearly still saw him as the angry lad who’d made her life a misery (and he could feel himself turning back into that lad…or maybe he’d always been the same and just fooled himself until now). Pearl offered him cookies ‘til he had a gut the size of Mam’s wardrobe. A wardrobe she probably had sprawled out on her bed, finding the right frock to impress _him…_

Hedidn’t want to think about it.

He started to run, jeans chafing his thighs, feet aching, but it cleared his head. 

He caught his breath at the old bridge. He was about to see if he could pop in with Adam and Vic until the trail of beer cans caught his eye. 

Then one caught him in the side of the head.

“Look out!” a squeaky-husky male voice taunted, preparing to throw another half-empty can. 

It was that sick freak Lachlan. Aaron wanted to knock him into next week - or he’d settle for off the bridge. It took the last shreds of control he had not to do it.

Aaron wasn’t as fast as he used to be, but he was quick enough to grab the slender wrist mid-toss.

“Always said you were a tosser,” he said, grabbing the Christmas green and red beanie with his free hand and throwing it in the river. 

“So I’m a tosser?” Lachlan sneered in his best pouty tone. “Well you’re a -”

“Lachlan just shut up!” a young, female voice - broken from tears - shouted. 

“Belle?” Aaron said, “Did he -”

“No!” She shouted, emerging from the darkness with mascara trails and tears at the knees of her stockings. “I just - I freaked out. And he was here drinking. And I started drinking. That’s it.” 

He wasn’t sure he believed her, but he knew the toll it had taken on him - still took on him - when nobody ever believed him.

“I believe ya.”

Lachlan smirked.

“So now you can leave us alone.” 

Aaron shook his head, a strong hand even stronger on the collar of Lachlan’s jumper.

“I’ll leave you alone - sod off to the big house.”

“Oh and you know all about that place, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Aaron smirked, “and I don’t regret one _second_ of it.” 

He actually did - he regretted every touch and kiss and secret and fresh level of broken trust - but he wasn’t going to tell this little shit currently brushing hard against his shoulder and stomping off home that. 

After he checked a few nearby spots in the woods to make sure Lachlan was really gone, he went back to Belle, weeping, head in her hands, feet dangling off the bridge.

“Belle…if you wanna -”

“I DON’T.”

“Fine,” Aaron sighed, sitting next to her, his own legs dangling beside hers.

After about ten minutes of lapping water and owls annoyed at their territory being invaded yet again by Dingles, Belle wiped her eyes and began to talk.

“It’s Dad.”

Aaron’s face fell.

“I-Is he…?”

“No!” Belle shouted. “It’s worse.”

He wanted to ask but was afraid she’d run off and then they’d never find her, or it would be like when Cain stopped her from jumping. They might not be so lucky this time.

“You remember when the hall blew up and you saved Joanie?” she said, pure ice in her voice.

Oh, he hadn’t slept with…

“I wish you’d let her die.”

Aaron shook his head, alarmed by her anger, the same anger that killed him a little more every day, even as it was his only comfort.

“Belle -” he started, unable to keep the worry out of his voice.

“Of course you’d take her side. You can’t get enough of married men either!”

Aaron sucked in a breath, hurting at the realization this is what everyone he loved would always think of him. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, eyes welling up again. “You’re not like her. Nobody is.” 

Aaron tried to start helping.

“I don’t know about her, but your dad - he loves ya. I’m not sayin’ forgive and forget, but -”

Belle shook her head violently, earrings dangling in the moonlight.

“I _can’t._ I can’t forgive him. I can’t just say, ‘Oh, I understand, it’s fine now, Dad.”

She paused to let the lump in her throat stop from suffocating her.

“Mum and Cain and _everybody_ kept telling me not to tell what I did to Gemma…and all for him. It would ‘break his heart.’ It would ‘kill him.’ Do you know what that did to me, Aaron? And now he doesn’t give a damn about hurting me, or Mum, which is just hurting me all over again…it hurts even more. Do you know how that feels?”

Aaron swallowed hard, tears in his own eyes. He did. He went to prison for his man, and she was already choosing Gordon over him, getting starry-eyed over the man who -

“Yeah, Belle. I do.”

He cleared his throat.

“I’m not gonna make ya feel better, but we can both make your mam feel better, right?”

“Nothing’s going to make her feel better, unless I put Joanie’s head on a pike.”

“You watch too much _Game o’Thrones_.”

Belle laughed, a laugh Aaron knew she desperately needed.

“Actually, I prefer _The Vikings_.”

Aaron shrugged.

“Whatever fitties in furs ya prefer. I just think - think we need to let your mam know you’re safe. And maybe…” he added, knowing he was selfish, but needing to say it so he wouldn’t end up on the streets because that’s where he’d be if his choice was the Woolie and Paddy, “maybe I can stay with ya, keep ya both company - or in case some of those thugs Cain mentioned come back.”

He expected Belle to pop off, but she just looked at him, processing what he said, before blowing out in a dramatic, teenager way.

“Fine. We can stomp on all her gaudy makeup. Think that’d make me feel better.”

“Yeah, OK,” Aaron said, evenly, just wanting her home safe.

To his surprise, when they stood up, Belle hugged him tight, the way she used to do when she was a little girl and he pretended to hate it.

“Happy Christmas,” she said, bitterly, the laugh never reaching her eyes.

“Happy Christmas,” he muttered in return.


End file.
